CLT Notes for Thursday, April 8 th , 2010: Aeneas  Aeneas  Making the Aeneid  Augustus, the first Roman emperor (27 BC – 14 AD), sponsored the arts to solidify his new age and to make it appear to be a continuation of the old Republic • Augustus claims to be a descendant from Venus (Aphrodite)  Sponsored poets and historians • Livy • Vergil ♦ 70-19BC, left the Aeneid unfinished  Is the Aeneid state propaganda? • (Said: Augustus doesn’t want it to be an obvious fact that he was the emperor, wanted people to think that there was still some form of government involvement. He wanted Virgil to make an epic to rival the Greeks.)  ‘Homer’ vs. ‘Vergil’  Oral poetry vs. literary poetry • ‘new’ poem each performance vs. 10 years of work  Popular entertainment vs. self-conscious artistry • (Said: Poet, whereas Vergil had only Augustus to answer to)  ‘Accidental’ national epic vs. deliberate epic  ‘Action’ heroes vs. thought, introspection, melancholy • (Said: Odysseus taunting the cyclopean dudes vs. Vergil’s story where heroes thought more.)  Vergil and the Aeneid  To rival the Homeric epics  Tells the story of the founding of the Roman people in Italy after the Trojan war  Aeneas • Sons of Anchises and Aphrodite • His story begins in the Iliad • Saved by Poseidon from Achilles • Aeneas also saved by Aphrodite (and Apollo) ♦ [Whenever he shows up, it is never favorable, always getting his butt kicked] ♦ When he is knocked unconscious by Demedes or whomever, Aphrodite gets hurt by

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